Man City reach ECL semis for first time

Kevin de Bruyne sent Manchester City into the Champions League semi-finals for the first time on Tuesday, securing a hard-fought 1-0 victory over French giants Paris Saint-Germain for a 3-2 aggregate win.

PSG's fourth successive quarter-final exit leaves the Qatari-owned club still chasing a European cup. Instead, City are celebrating another landmark in their transformation in the eight years since also coming under Middle Eastern ownership.

"It's an amazing night for us," said goalkeeper Joe Hart, City's only player before the 2008 takeover by Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour. "We've worked hard in this competition.

"I've been here since the start of this Champions League run and we did struggle to start with, but we started to piece together results and this speaks volumes."

The win ensures Manuel Pellegrini, who reached the semi-finals as Villarreal coach 10 years ago, can still turn City into European champions before handing over in May to Pep Guardiola.

City's Sergio Aguero missed a penalty and PSG's Zlatan Ibrahimovic had two free-kicks saved and a goal disallowed for offside.

"This evening, and last week in Paris, we weren't clinical enough - we weren't efficient," PSG coach Laurent Blanc said. "City is a good team, not a particularly spectacular team, but they are efficient and they get the job done ... imposing their physicality without creating many opportunities."

De Bruyne struck in the 76th minute. After taking the ball past Edinson Cavani, De Bruyne curled a slight deflected shot through traffic to find the net.

Chelsea discarded the midfielder in 2014 but City signed him from Wolfsburg last year for 75 million euros ($A111 million). The Belgian has scored three goals in four games since a two-month layoff - including one in last week's first leg.

"The money is not the most important thing," Pellegrini said. "All the clubs spend a lot of money. The most important thing is the performance of the player and the team."

One potential semi-final opponent is Real Madrid after Cristiano Ronaldo's hat-trick in a 3-0 victory over Wolfsburg in Tuesday's other game to advance 3-2 on aggregate.

Madrid are nine-time winners and City are chasing their first European trophy since the Cup Winners' Cup in 1970.

PSG can still end the season with a treble, by adding the French Cup and League Cup to their fourth straight league title.